In 2013, Eagle School of Madison was embarking on a capital campaign and fundraising endeavor to expand the school significantly, including the addition of a performing arts center. At that time, Eagle School’s web site was a hard-coded, static site maintained by a parent. This was undoubtedly a state-of-the-art site when it was introduced a decade earlier, but it had become problematic. How was the school going to quickly update families and donors on the process of fundraising – and then the progress of construction – with a site that only one busy volunteer could make changes to?

Back to Work, Web Site!

We were able to update the site and give the school administrators full access and control of its content. The budget was very tight, so we used off-the-shelf themes and plugins to deliver the entire wishlist of a self-managed web site:

• allow school admins to add and edit content quickly
• allow director to report on fundraising/construction project in real time
• provide the school calendar online
• construct a private parent area with additional resources
• incorporate a slide show of day-to-day school activites

Now, several teachers and staff are actively contributing to Eagle’s web site content – a complete turnaround from the slow, arduous process of passing changes through a busy parent volunteer.

(Full disclosure: I am also an Eagle parent.)